


like a wildfire in my bones

by afteriwake



Series: nongentorum [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Introspection, POV Sherlock Holmes, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock Holmes is Bad at Feelings, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing, Sherlock-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6662962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock ponders his relationship with Molly, the twists and turns it has taken, and how it has gone from its start to the point where it is now, where she refuses to leave his side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like a wildfire in my bones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [majesticlolipop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/majesticlolipop/gifts).



> So my friend **majesticlolipop** needed some cheering up and even though it took a little while I finally got some time to sit down and write a fic for her! I decided to set it in my 900 follower milestone series, and it's inspired by a quote by Christopher Poindexter (“ _And I knew her soul wasn't something to take lightly. In a world where very little truth existed, her soul was a pariah, standing alone burning like a wildfire in my bones- a flaming crescent across pale midnight skies_ ”). I hope you all enjoy it.

_“You are not going without me.”_

He wasn't one to believe in the concepts of souls or soul mates or any of that metaphysical garbage. He didn’t believe that there was anything to any of it. But there was _something_ about Molly that drew him to her that he simply couldn’t explain, some aspect to her that defied all sense of science and logic. He had known it for years, known it since the moment he had met her and she had refused to leave his mind palace, unlike so many other people who he had deemed inconsequential at first meeting, mere tools to be used.

The more he got to know her, the more she grew on him. The more she became important. The more important she became, the more he realized that she was such a strong woman, far stronger than she appeared to the world. There was an inner strength to her that was buried down in the depths of her, beneath her mousy demeanor, that she kept hidden. Perhaps not on purpose, but it was safer for her to let people walk all over her, to let them use her as needed, but oh, there was steel in her spirit.

He saw glimpses here and there, saw strength and saw passion as well. But they were only glimpses, just mere snippets of moments. He wanted to see more, after the Christmas party. He found that the Molly with the spine of steel was vastly more appealing than the one who was a human doormat. And while he didn’t see much of it again before he faked his death, he saw other things. He saw kindness that he should have seen before but had written off as weakness. He saw warmth that he had written off as foolishness. And he saw cleverness that he had written off as luck.

In short, he saw a person he should have admired and written off, a person he should have made the attempt to get to know better, to befriend, instead of simply writing off as a tool to be used.

And that thought stuck with him for two years as he wondered how he could change things when he returned.

He had not expected things to be so different when he returned, however. The steel of her backbone was more pronounced, the passions rode more prominent on the surface. And her heart...her heart was given to another. He had not expected that, though he should have. A woman like her, a phenomenal woman like her, would have many men tripping over themselves to be with her once she realized she was worth so much more than men like Moriarty.

Or even men like him, truth be told.

When he kissed her cheek on the stairs, it was his way of saying he wished her the best because she truly deserved it. And she did. She deserved nothing but the best, even if that did not include him in the way he had grown to perhaps think he might want. And he had thought that might be the end of it, but then everything went on with the wedding and with Janine and Magnussen and his exile. He had to get used to the idea of a life without her, as miserable as it would be.

And for a long while afterward, she had distanced herself. She had said it was in her best interest, to keep herself from getting hurt. And it had been that that had caused him to straighten up. She had seared herself on his heart, and perhaps on his soul, if he had believed such a thing existed. He had made an earnest effort to resist the siren call of heroin, he had worked hard to make sure that he treated anyone he had to work with with at least tolerance, if not respect, and he did everything he could to make sure that he lived up to every expectation she had of him.

And when he won back her trust and friendship, when she began to spend time with him again and brought him back into her confidence, when she was close to him again, he knew it had been worth it. She had wormed her way into his life and the further in she burrowed the less he wanted her to dislodge herself. But he knew, somehow, that with the way his luck ran that they would have to be at some point.

And that point, unfortunately, was tomorrow.

The virus that was Moriarty had spread but he had knocked it down every time it reared it’s ugly head, and he finally gotten to the root. It involved a trip to the States, and what would probably be a lengthy trip abroad, but he hoped when he was done the problem would be taken care of once and for all. And she had surprised him by saying she wouldn’t let him leave without her. He could be alive for another nine hundred years, live nine hundred lives and never hear anything that surprised him more or warmed his heart more.

And when he kissed her, holding her close, before promising her yes, she could come with him, he knew that even in nine hundred different lives, they would never be apart, because if they did have souls, their souls were inextricably linked.


End file.
